A4
East Oregonian
Friday, May 17, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Would open public meeting better fit the bill?
t first glance, it is a bit diffi-
cult to aptly describe the lat-
est initiative by the Umatilla
County Board of Commissioners.
Readers may recall that the com-
missioners plan to hold a series of pri-
vate meetings with property own-
ers regarding a controversial plan to
rebuild East Airport Road in Hermis-
ton. Some residents assert the project
will mean the loss of sections of their
property in the county right-of-way.
The county decided recently to
spearhead a series of private one-on-
one meetings with individual residents
in the area to provide more informa-
tion about the plan and to help allevi-
ate concerns.
A county commissioner, an engi-
neer, a county road employee and oth-
ers will be at each meeting with each
individual resident.
The meetings appear to be a good-
faith effort by elected leaders to reach
out to community members with
concerns. They are not public meet-
ings — exactly — but they are not
expressly private either. We under-
stand that notes will be taken during
the meetings and a summary provided
A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A car drives on East Airport Road on Friday near EOTEC. The county decided recently to
spearhead a series of private one-on-one meetings with individual residents in the area to
provide more information about the plan and to help alleviate concerns.
to the board.
As far as the idea itself, we applaud
the commission for tackling a sensi-
tive issue in a constructive manner.
Any interaction between elected lead-
ers and voters is a good thing. Democ-
racy wins when residents believe and
know they have access to the politi-
cians that represent them.
Yet we can’t help but wonder why
the individual meetings are necessary
in the first place when a larger, more
open public meeting would fit the bill.
Individual sessions between voters
and elected leaders are — or should
be — a commonplace element to our
democracy. All of us — within reason
— should expect to be able to walk
into the courthouse after making an
appointment and chat with one of the
commissioners about an issue.
The East Airport Road issue is an
important one, especially to the res-
idents who live on that road and are
affected by decisions concerning the
road and right-of-way. But in a larger
sense it is also a crucial subject for
the entire community, not just those
directly affected by the proposal.
That’s because the problems that sur-
round the proposal tend to crop up
from time to time across the area. The
road and residents will have different
names and live in a different location,
but the issue will arise in the future.
That’s why we believe that while
the individual meeting plan shows the
commissioners have their hearts in the
right place, the fact is there should be
larger, open public meetings on the
issue. More than one if necessary.
YOUR VIEWS
Women’s bodies
are their business
Several states are passing legislation
to tightly control women’s reproductive
health and choices. Our own legislature
has periodic rumblings along these lines.
How arrogant.
It is absurd that white male politi-
cians try to control and legislate wom-
en’s reproductive health, contraception,
and family planning. Women face numer-
ous and complex individual situations
every day. They should be able to manage
their own bodies with the advice of those
they respect. They should be able to do
so without Big Brother looking over their
shoulders.
No one has ever gotten pregnant with-
out the participation of a man; therefore,
men should share in the responsibilities. If
these efforts to curtail a woman’s choice
continue, we should demand legislation
putting sideboards on men’s reproductive
health and activities. It would only be fair.
Jeff Blackwood
Pendleton
OTHER VIEWS
Joe Biden and restoring the old (pre-Trump) order
T
here was a school of thought that
can society, but to restore things to the way
said former Vice President Joe Biden they used to be. And “the way they used to
would begin to sink in the polls the
be” means before Donald Trump.
moment he announced his candidacy for
Obviously, Democratic voters want to
the Democratic presidential nom-
replace a Republican president
ination. Biden’s first day in the
with a Democratic president. But
race, the thinking went, would be
they are especially dismayed by
his best day.
Trump — and some, driven by
In fact, the opposite has hap-
increasingly strident news cov-
erage, seem to have gone nearly
pened. Since formally becoming a
‘round the bend about him.
candidate on April 25, Biden has
But for some center-left Dem-
shot up in the polls. On announce-
ocrats, the solution to the Trump
ment day, Biden held a 6.3-point
Problem — that is, the fact that
lead over second-place Sen. Ber-
B yron
nie Sanders in the RealClearPol-
Trump is president — might not
y ork
itics average of polls. Today, that
COMMENT
be the Green New Deal or Medi-
care for All. It is to restore the pre-
lead is 23.5 points. That is a big
2017 order in American politics.
change.
Polls do not tell us who will win an elec- And Biden, Barack Obama’s vice president
tion months from now. But they do tell us
from 2009 to 2017, is the physical embodi-
ment of that old order.
what is happening at this moment. And at
That is what Biden promises. Nearly
this moment, Democratic voters, who are
every day, he repeats some version of his
sometimes said to be moving left and itch-
ing to transform the United States with a
core campaign pledge: “I want to restore
Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and
the soul of this country.”
through-the-roof taxes on the rich, are in
Biden’s unexpected choice of the 2017
fact responding to a decidedly more centrist events in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the
appeal.
theme of his announcement was a way
That appeal, from Biden, is a prom-
of saying that something has gone terri-
bly wrong in the United States and that
ise not to fundamentally remake Ameri-
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
he wants to return to the pre-Trump past.
Addressing a real or imagined moral crisis
is one way for an opposition candidate to
run against an incumbent president whose
term has brought solid economic growth,
low unemployment and higher wages.
How long will Biden’s lead last? Who
knows? There is simply no telling how the
Democratic race will play out. In the last
two Republican nomination contests, we
saw one race, in 2012, in which several can-
didates alternated holding the lead before
Mitt Romney finally won. In the other, in
2016, we saw Trump lead a big field virtu-
ally the entire time. Now, with an even big-
ger Democratic field, the race dynamics are
not yet clear.
Plus, for Biden specifically, there will
always be the issue of age. Biden will be 78
years old on Inauguration Day 2021. That
is the same age Trump would be upon leav-
ing office, should he serve eight years. But
Biden would be just beginning his presi-
dency nearing the age of 80. That is totally
uncharted territory in United States history.
(By the way, one other candidate, Sanders,
is even older.)
Even if Democrats want to restore the
old order, they might decide a younger can-
didate should do the job.
They might also want a candidate
without Biden’s record of fizzling out
in presidential campaigns. In his first
run for president, in 1988, Biden with-
drew amid a plagiarism scandal before
any votes were cast. In his second run, in
2008, he quit after finishing fifth in the
Iowa caucuses. So he has run twice and
never even made it to the New Hampshire
primary.
Now, though, Biden stands ahead of the
field. Democrats know how old he is, they
know he has lost in the past, and they still
like him.
There’s a truism that elections are
always about the future, not the past. That’s
often the case. But what if it isn’t this time?
A lot of political truisms did not hold up
in the 2016 election, which was won by a
man with another promise of restoration, to
Make America Great Again.
Now, many Democrats seem happy to
support a candidate who pledges to take
them back a few years. Again, that could
change, but for the moment it shows how
many Democrats yearn to return to a time
before Trump.
———
Byron York is chief political correspon-
dent for The Washington Examiner.
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